Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Shares Sold by Great Lakes Advisors LLC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 505,851 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 15,687 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Shell were worth $31,692,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Shell by 5.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 65,298,943 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $4,306,465,000 after purchasing an additional 3,255,347 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Shell by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 24,938,735 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,562,412,000 after buying an additional 408,088 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Shell by 0.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,972,945 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $408,430,000 after buying an additional 55,637 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Shell by 8.7% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 5,282,868 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $348,405,000 after buying an additional 422,329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP increased its holdings in Shell by 29.8% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,773,617 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $248,870,000 after buying an additional 866,954 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.60% of the company’s stock.

Shell Stock Performance

Shares of SHEL opened at $66.81 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $66.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $203.18 billion, a PE ratio of 13.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.47. Shell plc has a 52-week low of $60.15 and a 52-week high of $74.61.

Shell (NYSE:SHEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The energy company reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.54). Shell had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 5.57%. Equities research analysts predict that Shell plc will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Shell Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.716 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.29%. This is a positive change from Shell’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. Shell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on SHEL shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Shell from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $66.50 to $79.80 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Shell from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Shell from $86.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Shell from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Shell from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Shell presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.11.

About Shell

Shell plc operates as an energy and petrochemical company Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, the United States, and Rest of the Americas. The company operates through Integrated Gas, Upstream, Marketing, Chemicals and Products, and Renewables and Energy Solutions segments. It explores for and extracts crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids; markets and transports oil and gas; produces gas-to-liquids fuels and other products; and operates upstream and midstream infrastructure to deliver gas to market.